ESAU
by TheVoidWalker
Summary: Konoha has only one real specialist at espionage. Shadow agent Kyo. When he gets permission to train a new shadow unit to take over for incompetent ANBU, he finds a natural for the job. A blond haired boy with a knack for winning trust and wearing masks.
1. Prologue

AN: I came up with this because when I thought about it, the shinobi in Naruto don't really act like accordingly. In the entire series, there has been ONE work of espionage, and no real assassinations, at least not in the "stealthy, no idea who did it sense." My point is, there might as well be a unit dedicated to espionage and stealth assassination, one specifically geared toward threats to the village, and not missions from clients. The whole point a shinobi is basically those two, so it escapes me why every assassination attempt I have seen has been so straight forward its not even funny. It pretty much the guy jumps out and says "I'm going to kill you." Zabuza was really the only one who even tried to go for a perfect kill. Now, fights are cool and all, but there has to be balance. That's what I'm aiming for with this.

Ok, uploading doesn't work anymore, so I had to export a document and copy paste what I had written, so until that get's fixed, my formatting won't be perfect.

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E.A.U

Prologue

* * *

Kyo walked out of the business offices of Rui Inc, keeping a casual pace. So far, so good. The Rui Corporation had for a long time been a thorn in Konoha's side. Orochimaru held them by the throat, and the company bled money into the Sound, while Orochimaru used their business connections to effectively shut off trade from any non-allied village. It was hard for a shinobi village to send supplies when the village itself was at risk from attack. Fortunately, Suna no longer had to deal with that burden.

His mission was simple: gather any and all data linked to Orochimaru, relay it back to Konoha, eliminate the board members and the president of the company, and finally, eliminate any traces. He had been visiting the place for a month now, pretending to be Daichi Kobayashi, a business man from Lightning offering a partnership. He had taken the place of the real Daichi. It was his only window in, what with the Sound offering their shinobi as guards. He silently laughed at how easy his job had been. All the records he needed where in expenditure listings they had allowed him to copy, for his company to see what took up the bulk of their business, and to craft the terms of the partnership to better suit both parties. The president was rather shocked when the friendly Daichi was found, sitting in his chair, kunai already thrown. That was the previous night. Over four weeks of work, laughing silently at his opponents, and this was still his favorite part. He casually turned a corner. Seeing no-one on the street, he Shunshined as the Rui Corporation headquarters blew up. The explosion was massive. From a few hills outside the village, he watched the flame and smoke.

"Amazing what you can do with a little acting, a nice load of C-1, and access to gas valves." Kyo said, laughing. Every single one of his missions were high-risk but the pay off was incredible. Beyond the money, there was the humor in each victory. He, at the age of 19, had just single handedly brought down one of the largest corporations, or at least, the cascade effect of losing all their executives would bankrupt the company in no time. And everyone would pin it on poor Daichi, and thus, their corporation would come under fire and probably go bankrupt. Since his corporation was a key supplier of the Lightning, that killed two birds with one explosion. Kyo smirked, and headed back to Konoha. "I just don't see why they don't do it my way…maybe I should see Hokage-sama when I get back. Those idiots always do it the hard but stupid way." Kyo was referring to the fact that a typical assassination mission was almost always linked (by the enemy) to the village that ordered it. It wasn't exactly the most subtle thing, sending a group of ANBU (which were easily recognizable as Konoha shinobi, since animal masks were unique to their specific organization, while the elite forces of other villages had other methods of hiding their members) to knock out a leader, or to steal a document. And it took months of preparation for an actual attack.

His methods were riskier, granted, but they yielded far superior results. Instead of one measly speck of information, he had uncovered and analyzed hundreds of sheets of valuable data. He had located Orochimaru and several of his outposts by tracing the expenditures and sales of certain products to a location in Rock country. And the snake was none the wiser. All of his discoveries were in Konoha by now. The messages had to be decoded, and Kyo used the most complicated cipher he could create, but that was a matter of time. By the time he got back, they would have Orochimaru tailed so hard that he couldn't lift a finger without Konoha knowing the exact time, place, which finger he lifted, and how many muscles it took. A success in his book. He began the journey home, satisfied with his work.

* * *

**_Konoha_**

Uzumaki Naruto had returned to Konoha a few days ago from his trip. He had learned a lot, his arsenal of jutsu increasing tremendously. He managed to impress the Rookie 8 and Team Gai…although he would have rather Rock Lee not been there. The "Flames of Youth" speech was a tad bit…unnecessary.

Since it had only been a few days, Naruto was surprised when Jiraiya came to him saying he had to see Tsunade. Naruto assumed it was for a mission of some kind, odd though it was. Then again, the only member of the Rookie 9 that could touch him was Sakura, and that was only if he stood still to admire her much improved figure, so it made sense to call on him. He hurried to her office, not wanting to be launched through a wall. He only prayed Jiraiya had been on time with the message.

On arrival, he saw a man not much older then he was sitting on one of the couches in her office. Tsunade appeared to be going over a report. "I swear, I don't know how you do it."

"It wasn't hard…" the man said.

"You are too modest…why won't you let us promote you to ANBU?" Tsunade asked.

"Because with ANBU, the tactics are too simplistic. That, and they work in teams, and I have learned never to trust anybody. But I do have an alternative." The man said.

"Later, please. I need to have a quick word with Naruto here. You are welcome to stay and wait." Tsunade said. "Sorry to keep you waiting Naruto, I was kind of figuring Jiraiya would be late giving you the message…I guess shoving that rolling pin up there did make an impression."

"It's not a problem, what do you need?" Naruto asked.

"Well, two things really. The first, I need an update on your interaction with the Kyu…" she was cut off by Naruto.

"Whoa! Hey! He isn't much older then me, doesn't the thirds law apply here? Watch what your saying Obaa-chan!" To his surprise, Tsunade started laughing. "What is so damn funny?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that I've known Kyo since he was five…and he just knows this kind of stuff. Let me put it to you this way, he is the only person other then you to have stolen the Forbidden Scroll." Kyo looked up at this.

"So you're the one who pulled that off. I heard about it, didn't get the specifics. How'd you do it?" Kyo asked.

"That old man had a weakness anyone could exploit. He was a pervert, and I have a few techniques made to work against them. I used the first of them, the Orioke no jutsu." Naruto said. Naruto was expecting a sweat drop. Kyo looked up at muttered "Genius." Tsunade and Naruto both glared at him.

"I'm not a pervert. It's just plain brilliant. That would be incredibly useful on some of my missions… old rich guys buy girls all the time, and girls flock to their money anyway. Is it just a particular kind of Henge, or is there more to it?" Kyo asked. Naruto sweat dropped.

"Of course there's more to it! There's…umm…research?" Kyo and Tsunade broke out laughing. "Ok fine it's just a Henge!"

"Oh I needed that…you can't imagine how boring this job can be Naruto. Anyway, back to the point, what of the Kyuubi?" Tsunade said.

"At this point, I think the 'I want to eat you' threat is a joke between friends kind of thing. He doesn't help me much though, at least, not with training. But he does help me to train with his power, at least. I can use six tails and stay in complete control. I can go up to seven, but that would start a bloody massacre." Naruto said.

"All right…he hasn't been trying to get you to…you know…raze the village?"

"Not really, he doesn't seem to care. He won't admit it, but I think he kind of likes being stuck in my head. I changed the scenery a little, and since then he practically seems happy." Naruto said.

"Well, that's fine then. Now then, the second reason you are here is that you simply cannot be considered a Genin. The amount of high level missions you have done qualifies you for Chunin. Congratulations, kid." Tsunade said, pulling a vest out of nowhere and slapping it on him. His reaction was predictable. He ran around screaming in joy until Tsunade launched him in the direction of Ichiraku's. He would appreciate not having to walk, she thought. Kyo looked at her.

"And you say I'm the crazy one."

"We all have our faults. I throw people through walls; you wear that Henge 24/7. I still don't get how it is the Hyuuga don't see through it. The Uchiha never could do it either. For as long as I've known you…why do you wear it?"

"Simple. The only way to be a perfectly effective espionage agent is to always live a lie. I don't even know what my real name is." Tsunade shook her head sadly. Kyo was a good person and an exceptional shinobi, but the life he chose was a harsh one.

"When did you forget it?"

"Never knew it. Sarutobi never told you? He found me over the body of a mugger I just killed. Don't ask. I think I had just turned four at the time. Anyway, the old man took to one of the Yamanaka. They found out that I basically had a chunk of my memory just gone. Wiped out. After that, my life blurs for me. It's all just learning, training, and killing from that point."

"Right, so what did you want from me anyway?" Tsunade asked.

"As I was saying, ANBU don't do espionage well. I want to train a small force to take up the mantle. I like that Naruto…he has some natural talent. I'm willing to bet he has a few friends that would be good for the job."

"Naruto and espionage? There's something I never thought would mix. His emotional state is as far from perfect as it could possible be! He's loud, obvious, and seeks to draw attention. In direct combat, that doesn't matter since he can fight but for this, it doesn't work." Tsunade said. "I like the idea, but him? He wouldn't make the cut."

"It's precisely his emotions that make him my prime candidate. The way he acts naturally…it's alluring. He makes people trust him without even trying. Furthermore, the way he does that…a lot of it's an act. I've worn masks of all kinds my entire life, I can spot them on another. Hell, its part of my job. Trust me, I can teach him." Tsunade thought it over. Kyo knew what he was talking about, and she knew all too well that Naruto spent most of his life in a mask of happiness, even if he let it slip now and then. With some formal training, Naruto was already a menace on the field, where he fought directly. Kyo could teach him better then any how to skip that and get right to the heart of things.

"I don't want these kids separated from their duties as basic shinobi though. What with the war, they are needed for their current posistions. Once their training is over, we can figure out how to get them undercover without having them be noticed as missing."

"Nor do I. In fact, it's essential that they aren't. It will run them ragged, the ones I pick, but the fact that they still keep up all their regular duties makes it all the more perfect. Uzumaki is definitely first on my list. Any suggestions?"

"A few…Nara Shikamaru."

"The genius right? Yeah, he would be good."

"What about my student, Sakura?" Kyo laughed.

"Are you kidding me? She may have gotten stronger, but she's still a ditz around a cute guy. I do it all the time, lay a woman I need to kill. It's a good way to get close enough to do the job. Cruel, but then, that's the job for you."

"Ah…I hate to say it but your right about that. She is a ditz around a cute enough boy. What about Yamanaka Ino? She may act like one, but she isn't. I wouldn't be surprised to see her using the same tricks you do. Plus, she has her family jutsu…"

"I've seen her dad use them. She's in." Tsunade ran through a few more. Neji and Shino were both shot down because in order to do the job correctly, one had to be sociable, earn the trust of one's enemies. Those two wouldn't be too great at that. The rest all had a small quirk that just couldn't be refined. At the end of it, the new espionage and special assassinations unit would consist of Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ino.

"I'll call them in tomorrow. What are they learning anyway?"

"No…I'll arrange everything. Listen, none of these three can know each other. They will go by code names, and if they do ever work together, it's under Henge. They never know who they work with. The only people who know about this are you and me. And it stays there. As for what they are learning…everything. Aside from the do's and don'ts of the thing, they need to learn everything they can about poisons, anatomy, demolitions, which includes chemistry, and psychology…they have to learn a lot."

"Alright. We still ought to assign the unit a name for reference."

"The E.S.A.U. Espionage and Special Assassinations Unit."

* * *

Post Notes:

For the record, the demolitions devices that I use in this fic are real, can and have been made, and could be produced in Naruto's world. If they can make movies, refrigerators, and microwave ovens, they can sure as hell make heavy explosives. Guns may eventually leak in, but it'll just be one person, and I already have a reason if I do decide to make them a part of this. As of yet, I'm not making this a romance deal. For now, it's basically going to be training, but eventually, this will evolve into a full blown spy epic.


	2. The Trainees

AN: If anyone has a solution for the uploading problem that would let me avoid having to type everything in the editor, let me know, please. So anyway, I'm glad those you who have reviewed the prologue liked it. Chapter 1 is going to start this up nicely though, with political strife, unanswered questions, and the beginning of Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru's introduction to the dark world of a member of the new E.S.A.U, a world in which everyone is a threat, and only the best can survive.

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Chapter 1

New Recruits

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Tsunade knew it was going to happen. Every time she used Kyo, he did his job too well. A and S-ranked missions never went off without a hitch, except his. The council couldn't possibly miss such an obvious trend. While they didn't check the thorough reports, they did get a list of the more important missions outcomes. Just a success or fail mark, a few small notes about anything discovered, and the team that executed it. For awhile, the fact that a few high priority missions coming back as success was enough, and they ignored the fact that on those few, there was no team mentioned on the report. But now, with another Great Shinobi War on the verge of outbreak, Tsunade had to use Kyo more and more. She thought back on how Sarutobi had managed to bring him up, and make him the best.

Sarutobi had trained him in secret, that much she knew before becoming Hokage. The boy did nothing but eat, train, learn, and sleep, all under Sarutobi's wing. Tsunade had been called back from her travels to teach him what she knew of medicine, poisons, and chemistry. He learned faster then any student she had ever taught to date, Sakura included. Naturally she started asking questions about the boy. Sarutobi only explained that the boy was a natural shinobi, and was to be the most trusted tool of future Hokage, a shadow agent. He told her to tell no one of him. She argued that he should be allowed a normal life, but he explained his reasons. During the last Great War, Konoha had suffered a serious problem with betrayal and spies. Traitors and shinobi that had been placed in the system since their Genin days that leaked important information on missions, supply lines...everything. Sarutobi wanted someone to be trained for the most important of missions, someone who nobody knew existed, so nobody could betray. He would be a shinobi of Konoha, but he would have no record of any kind. He didn't exist, and still didn't.

But after several years of reports of successful missions filed with no shinobi actually being assigned to them couldn't go unnoticed for long, not when the latest ones were of the highest importance. Sarutobi had no major assignments for him, since most problems Konoha faced had to do with reconstruction and filling the ranks with new shinobi. Because the assignments were minor, the went unnoticed, hiding underneath the panic of the council to refill the ranks of the shinobi and to fortify Konoha. Tsunade didn't have the luxuries Sarutobi did, and the council, it seemed, had begun to take note of the "filing error." She was glad he had shot down becoming an ANBU, it would make it easier to keep him a secret. Walking toward the office, she spotted Kyo in his latest henge, waiting outside the the council. He was wearing a Jounin vest, so nobody bothered him. He was welcome to stand there, at least until the council convened.

"You knew didn't you, that they are on to this. You could have told me." Tsunade said. She was guessing that he knew. He always did.

"No, you would have tried to prepare an explanation, and in this case, I would rather offer them what they think is the complete truth. That's always the best disguise for a lie. My secret isn't up. When they ask for an explanation, let me handle it." Kyo said.

"I can't afford to let your identity be known." Tsunade said. Then she realized that Kyo had been right the other day, when he said he had to live a lie. The council didn't have an identity for him. And what could they really do. She was the Hokage, and if she made a military decision to have a shinobi like Kyo...or a few more...then they couldn't do anything, at least not for awhile. If nothing else, she would have Kyo take out the risky ones. She didn't like the idea, but he was too valuable as he was. She smiled, realizing that while their position was compromised slightly, Kyo was still untraceable as ever. "God...what am I saying. What identity do you actually have?"

"Exactly. Besides, if all goes well, I'll have three new agents ready in no time. I have spent a great deal of time considering how to speed up the education, and did come up with a method. I'll explain later, let's deal with this." He said, opening the door for her. He walked in with her, but not before changing his disguise. The ANBU guards weren't at their posts just yet, so nobody caught it.

"Hokage-sama, who exactly is that?" Hiashi asked, pointing to him. He didn't detect any disguise on him. "I don't recognize this jounin."

"Never you mind. He is here with my permission. What exactly do you want?" Tsunade said, trying to sound agitated. They always moved quicker that way.

"We need to ask about this mission notice. The elimination of the Rui Corporation. The information from this mission led to discovery of the location of Orochimaru and Sound forces, as the note says, as well as the downfall of a major supplier to the Lightning. The note also says that the those responsible for acquiring the initial information from the Rui offices did the analysis as well. What our notice doesn't say is what team. When we checked the official mission reports, it was noted that there was no team assigned at all, at least not on the record. This mission was never carried out by any team, and yet here we have the information and a thouroughly destroyed Rui Corporation." Hiashi said.

"So there was a major filing error." Tsunade said, trying to see if maybe Hiashi and the council had missed the previous "errors."

"Apparently a reoccurring one. When we double checked the records, we found that there were several such cases. They were missed because the results were far less so, and we had assumed an error when we received the notices." Danzou filled in. "They didn't warrant much attention. After all, it is your job to worry about the details, we only need to know the results. But we did check the details, what little there were of these unassigned yet completed missions."

"We found that each one was completed without any injury to our operatives, and, as far the report says, no link to Konoha in anyway. Our best ANBU can't pull that off, at least not with a job like this. Hokage-sama, we need to know who is doing these missions." Hiashi said.

"And we know it's not ANBU. It's been looked into, and during the time frame of the mission, each team that was out returned, and the ones sent away are one fully documented missions. Not a single team that wasn't sent out left Konoha. Since you submit the full mission reports after you are done viewing them, you must know what team pulled this off, and if you don't, then we have a serious problem." Danzou finished. Tsunade cursed inwardly. They had cross-checked everything nicely, and here she had been hoping she could blame it on her getting drunk. The council might not be brilliant as a whole, but Hiashi and Danzou were. The other members began demanding explanations. She held her hand up.

"There is no error on those reports or the notices." The council began chattering away, but Tsunade silenced them with a good shout. "Also, forgive the brevity on those particular mission reports, but they were written that way. Ordinarily this would not be acceptable, but for security purposes the originals were written in a cipher. What you have are translations done by me. Now, I say there is no error because there was no team." Tsunade said.

"Then we outsourced the missions? That would be recorded, but we found nothing of that either." Danzou said.

"No. The missions were completed by this Jounin..." Tsunade stopped, she had to think of a fake name, and quick. "Itou Kazuki." It seemed a common enough name. He stepped forward, a mask already set up. Something reminiscent of what Hiashi, Danzou, and many others associated with genius shinobi, as well as an attitude Hiashi would appreciate. Cold, harsh, and serious.

"Greetings. You will find that I am not on any record, because I am Hokage-sama's shadow agent." The council leaned in, and Kyo read the question off Hiashi's face. "No need to ask, Hiashi. I was already going to explain my position." The Hyuuga head twitched. He was always referred to with an honorific. Kyo saw the signs of anger, and inwardly smiled at his little game.

"I am an elder, as well as the head of the Hyuuga, and am to be spoken to with respect." Tsunade was close to losing her grip. Kyo treated her with respect only because she treated him as an equal, which he respected. Besides only her position as Kage and her age made her any higher, Kyo could kill her easily if he wanted to. She was grateful that Kyo knew his masks well, and acted with a level of arrogance all genius' held, not that he had any respect for Hiashi anyway.

"Only the Hokage earns respect from me. And don't bother trying to demote me or mark my record for lack of respect to a 'superior.' I am not on the record. As far as Konoha is concerned, I don't even exist." Hiashi was visibly twitchin, the boy read even his cold straight face like a book. He said nothing. If he did in fact take the missions in question, and completed them alone, then Hiashi couldn't touch him. He doubted Tsunade could either. Kyo continued. "I am the personal shinobi of the Hokage. I take the missions she deems to important to risk being done in anything less then a perfect fashion. I take orders only from her." The council was murmuring. Finally, Danzou spoke up.

"The missions you receive could be handled by ANBU. The fact that you completed them alone is extremely impressive, but there is no need for such a position."

"On the contrary, if you would consider these missions, all of them involve actions that, if linked to us, would invite a great deal of trouble. A job like this cannot be done by a group whose primary tactic for information retrieval and assassination involves such a straight forward method as a kill squad. Stealth is used up to a certain point, but I read the reports, and it always boils down to ANBU getting in a fight. Furthermore, your ANBU retrieve a small amount of information, because their methods allow for only a specific target. When the information being aimed for is non-specific, or requires careful analysis to determine its usefulness, your ANBU retrieve nothing." Kyo said. "In addition to all this, ANBU are linked to Konoha if they are spotted, and lately, that happens rather often in this particular division we are discussing. Our ANBU use gear specific to their organization, which is well known by any shinobi to be the _'elite'_ force of Konoha. Since they are regularly spotted on these missions, or don't completely destroy all traces of their presence, as I do, they are easily linked back to us. That, we cannot afford. If you will, let us examine the Rui Corporation that I ended. I was ordered to take it out, and take any information I could relating to Orochimaru's whearabouts. It is a well known supplier of the Sound, and is protected by them. However, they as a Corporation have enemies the Sound does not. An ANBU team would leave no doubt. My method left nothing but a possible speculation, and I eliminated that with my use of a business representative from a supplier of Lightning as a disguise, after kidnapping the original representative. That corporation has been facing a great deal of pressure from many countries that, like the village of the Sound, were aided by the Rui. The end result, a key supplier of the Lightning cut down." The council was just staring blankly at this point. "By the way, the information I gathered was nothing but basic receipts of business transactions. Expenses and whatnot. After all, the company, having financed Orochimaru, would no doubt have records of where its products are being sent. It was general information, but it's enough to make and accurate conclusion. ANBU would never look through that in the first place, they would go through the trouble of kidnapping and torturing people, a method with no guarantee which takes time. This is what I meant by their inability to deal with non-specific information. Now, even if ANBU had thought to use the expense records, they would have gone through the trouble to steal them. I, on the other hand, had them handed to me by the late Rui Corporation president, who directed me to a copy machine so I could copy them. Which method is better, do you think?" Tsunade finally caved, and she broke out in hysterical laughter. Hiashi and Danzou were pissed, but said nothing.

When Tsunade recovered from her laughing fit, she finished the meeting. "None of this has ever been said. Itou Kazuki does not exist, but if it makes you happy, I'll put the name on the reports."

"We want him in the records." Hiashi said. Danzou agreed.

"A Shinobi like him, we need to have some account. But I have a much greater concern. Why is he still a Jounin? He should have been ANBU well before now." Danzou asked. Tsunade looked to Kyo. Personally, she thought he should have been ANBU right from the start of his missions, at the age of ten.

"ANBU work in teams, which requires trust. My specialty is espionage, if you hadn't noticed. I know all to well the threat of an enemy who can do the same, or were you forgetting about Kabuto? Think what would have happened had I been on a team or forced to work with him. I know things you don't want me to know. That's because it is my job to know everything, and quite frankly, I refuse to put that knowledge at risk by working on a team where anyone could be a traitor. That is the first rule of my life, and the life of a real shinobi. Trust no one." What he had just said went against a basic philosophy of being in combat, which was that teamwork saved lives. However, for him the opposite was true.

"I would argue with you...but you are alive because of it, and there is a large difference between espionage and being combat. So I must ask you, though you are clearly an expert in the role of the spy and of the hit man, what of field combat?" Danzou asked. Kyo knew a fair bit about Danzou, as well as his suspicions, but he had nothing definite. All he knew was that Root, the division of ANBU Danzou had started which the Sandaime shut down was still around, and still active, with their old commander no doubt holding the reigns. It was enough to raise a red flag, so when Danzou asked his question, Kyo knew what the elder was thinking. Danzou was planning to either recruit him, or attempt to assassinate him.

'Damn. Think quick. Do I let the mask slip a little and undertone my combat abilities, or do I keep it up and give up the advantage of a false sense of security? Plus, if do keep it up, I would actually admit to my real skill...' Kyo thought. This was the tough part. Living a lie was simple when all you had to do was claim to be someone you weren't. When you had to figure out what the other would say is where it got tricky. Itou Kazuki was an egotistical genius, and that's who he had to be. "I invite you to find out, but you should remember that a true shinobi never fights completely straight forward." he said, picking a statement of relative ambiguity, but implying that people shouldn't try to kill him. Danzou looked frustrated, it wasn't the response he was looking for. Tsunade thought the meeting was over, but they hadn't avoided the records issue.

"Can we please focus? Hokage-sama, we cannot have this shinobi unregistered. Those records are vital for strategic use, and as Kazuki-san says, we can't trust anyone completely. Those records are vital to our Hunter-nin should anything happen." Hiashi said. Tsunade looked up at that. Hiashi didn't seem to realize that Kyo was responsible for the majority of the information the Hunter-nin had used. Like anyone in his line of work, he had a spy network in place, although none of them knew anything about him, save that if they betrayed him, it would prove to be a very bad decision. The same was true for anyone who he thought an enemy, no matter who they were.

"Hiashi, he is not going to be in the Shinobi register, not so you and your council here can command him. He is on a separate chain of command. If you have a problem with that, you can shove another stick up your ass, if you can fit anymore in there. And for the record, if he left, we would never see him again." Tsunade said. Kyo thought he could afford to play up the role a little more.

"Well, you wouldn't know it when you did." He said. Turning a rather psychotic look, he added "That is, you wouldn't until you feel your death, and probably not even then. I may be giving you all more credit then I should."

With that, he and Tsunade left the council chamber. After the meeting, back in her office, Kyo brought her up to speed on his training plan. His education with Sarutobi was actually quite limited. It was a chaotic time where Sarutobi's duties as Hokage often took up all of his time. In this case, it was the duties of day to day life that interfered. Kyo would have Tsunade ease the schedules of several random shinobi as well as the three selected for the program, as much as she could. He would have them sleeping five hours a night, the bare minimum for health. He would teach subliminally, with a CD player and special headphones. They detected when the user fell asleep and automatically started playing then. It had to do with detection of chakra activity. It was technology applied in the field that allowed a medic to analyze the flow of chakra and determine if there was something wrong, and if there was, what that problem was. A little reverse engineering on the part of Kyo, and he had re-worked it.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Tsunade asked.

"No, but don't get on me about the health thing. I don't make a habit of it." Kyo said. Tsunade shrugged. He knew as much about medicine as she did, and had better chakra control. Who was she to lecture.

"Alright, but that doesn't fully solve the problem. Subliminal messaging doesn't teach details. Besides, Kyo, you are a genius. You probably top even Shikamaru. You made up that cipher of yours in what...a month? Out of curiosity, I wrote a message in it and gave it to the cryptology specialists at ANBU. Eight months later, their commander came in asking why I would waste their time with a joke. They thought it was just a random bunch of letters and symbols."

"Your point?"

"My point is that it took you 6 years to get to the point where you could be an operative, and all you did was learn. These kids can't put that kind of work in. You want to do this in under a year, I am telling you, it can't be done. Even with subliminal teaching."

"Oh but it can. You see, I have a technique that can bring subconscious information out. I use it during interrogation because usually what a person doesn't think important at all is consciously forgotten, but some of it is still left in the subconcious. I find that what most people think important and what I think important can vary, so I need to coax that information out their subconscious. It isn't dangerous or painful. Since this is directly to the subconscious, I bring that information back in perfect detail. 5 solid hours in the pocket. Now, how long do you think you can give me in the day." Kyo said.

"You chose a good time to have this idea, although the reason for that is also because of you. Your locating Orochimaru has given us a great deal of time to play with. Our strategists have determined that its best to watch him for a little while to see what he is doing in Earth country. That means that I can afford to clear a few schedules. I'll have Naruto listed as on a break for a short while anyway. He will be able to have the most time. You'll need it. Unless it's jutsu, he's a total moron. Kami knows I love the kid, but he is what he is. And hey, he gets his job done, and there isn't anyone who works harder. So for awhile I guess you'll be pushing him. As for Ino and Shikamaru, their team is still active, but I will assign short missions. They will probably learn quicker anyway. When do you start all this?"

"You are going to instruct them to meet me at an luxury apartment complex not far from here. It's that one for visiting nobles. I want them there at 8 pm. They should count on being out till about midnight. Just so you know, since this is an official organization with your authorization, I took the liberty of choosing a location for a headquarters. I don't know if you were aware, but there are caves in the Hokage Monument...well, they are basically caverns. I'll have to dedicate a day to that, outfitting it. Thank god for Kage Bunshin." Tsunade was suddenly jolted with a little realization.

"Kyo... I can't beleive I didn't think of this before!"

"What, doing your paper work with it? I know, I was waiting for that one." Tsunade sweat dropped.

"Why didn't I think of that..." she said. "But that wasn't it. Naruto learned only one jutsu from the scroll, he doesn't have a photographic memory, at least, not that I know of. Even if he did, he was trying to learn a jutsu to pass the academy, since his gargantuan chakra supply makes him unable to make a Bunshin properly, so he wasn't after anything but one move. He learned the Kage Bunshin. He used it over the three year trip to learn faster. He's like you...his chakra is basically inexhaustible. It's not the Kyuubi either. It's just natural...but that makes it all the more fearsome. He usually makes about a thousand." Kyo just stared. Tsunade started backing away.

"Why didn't you mention that before... if I'm right about him, he will understand if I give him to tools to. I think you just missed his intelligence because it's under the act. I really did pick a good one. So anyway, have them there that night."

* * *

Naruto found the order to be odd as hell. He was meeting that guy in the middle of nowhere, under a Henge, as ordered. The top of an apartment complex... Tsunade wouldn't explain, but he knew better then to invite trouble. Leaping across the rooftops, he spotted the apartment. On top of it, two figures were already present. Kyo he recognized. The other was a person he had never seen. He assumed he was in Henge.

When he joined them he started to say "Kyo? It's Yuudai." Naruto said, using his codename, again as ordered. "So what is with all this?"

"One moment. We have one more who will be joining us tonight." Kyo said. Soon, another person landed, a woman this time. Naruto didn't know her, and guessed that like him and the other figure, was in a Henge. "Hello Emi."

"Kyo, I assume?" she asked. He nodded. "Good to meet you then."

"And you. Let me explain why you three are here. To begin, you must know a little about me. I am the only real espionage specialist this village has. I have served Hokage-sama as her shadow agent. As far as Konoha is concerned, I do not exist. I am not on the shinobi register, I have no identity here. She assigns me missions of the utmost importance, missions wherein failure would be disastrous for the village. This is because there can be no link to our village from these missions, because it would give other countries a clear target for revenge. ANBU are linked, and their methods in my field are rather sloppy. They don't get enough information, and they don't understand what is insignificant and what isn't. So, ANBU are being removed from these assignments, and being replaced by a new organization. Mine. You three have been selected because you each have traits that make you ideal for the field. Tonight starts your basic training as members of the shadow organization, the E.S.A.U, the Espionage and Special Assassinations Unit." Kyo said. The new recruits shifted a little. "You have questions, feel free to ask." Kyo said. Ino spoke first.

"What is the point of the Henge? If we are a team here, we need to have trust..." Ino was cut off before she could finish.

"I said you three are my first trainees. I never said you were a team. Here's your first rule. You don't trust anybody. The reason for the Henge is so that nobody can betray your identity. Only I and Hokage-sama know each of you. However, I urge each of you to try to discover who the people next to you are. It will be indicative of your skill and their incompetence." Kyo said. They all straightened. They had all been trained to think that teamwork was essential, that it was the basis of success or failure in missions. "In this field, teamwork gets you killed." As Kyo predicted, Shikamaru, or Nobu, understood why.

"Even if we weren't traitors...if we were captured, the torture would make us give up information..." Shikamaru said. "So, alone, what can we do?" Kyo smiled.

"Alone, you are far more dangerous. I will teach you how to be anyone, to disappear. You will be able to fall of this Earth in an instant. I will in short teach you the core of what a shinobi is. A spy. Make no mistake that your ability to fight will also be key. There is no mission without a quirk, to think so is a death sentence for you. I have survived this long because the few times I have been in a... sticky situation, I was able to fight my way out."

"So what will we be learning, exactly?" Ino asked.

"Acting, data collection and analysis, psychology, not that you don't already have some proficiency in that, Emi. You will also be learning chemistry, demolitions, cryptography, anatomy, and more. I am training you to be a one person army." Kyo said. Naruto grumbled.

"Why do we have to learn so much?" He asked.

"In this field, the more you know, the better of you are. You can't rely on anyone but yourself. Forget teamwork, you are your own team. Let me fill you in on my most recent mission. The Rui Corporation." Kyo explained. Ino spoke up first.

"That was destroyed by some guy from a rival corporation under orders from Lightning wasn't it? What do you have to do with it?" She asked.

"Emi, never take what you hear as true without checking it five times over with every resource you have. I have everything to do with that. I took the place of that man, and used his identity to get the information I was after, which was expense records. Then, as ordered, I eliminated the company. I killed off the president, and blew everyone else to hell. I went in with the most basic orders, get any information relevant to Orochimaru, take out the leaders of the Corporation, and eliminate any signs." They were impressed, but Ino seemed to have something on her mind.

"But...there could have been innocent people in that building..." She said.

"There were. Morality has nothing to do with your job now. Save who you can, but never hesitate. Had I not destroyed that building, Sound shinobi would have known a shinobi killed the president of that company. I wouldn't have had time to take out the board members any other way. Necessity dictates everything. Now then, training you would take years if not for my...methodology in this. In these packages are your instructions. You will open them and read them thoroughly before going to bed, and I will know if you do or don't, and I am warning you that my word is law. Do not cross me. Now, I will arrange a more permanent location for meetings later. Oh, I almost forgot." Kyo took out three small cards. "These are from the Hokage-sama. They give you full access to any archive owned by Konoha. They declare that you outrank ANBU. You only have this authority when under my orders. If I find out otherwise...well, don't let me find out." He said. "Tonight is your first lesson, and the most important. The only way to pull this off is to know how to live a lie perfectly. I am effective at this because I don't actually have a real self to me, I don't even know my real name. I have walked up to each of you, shook hands with you, and yet, only one of you has seen this face. I have thousands. You need to learn to do this." Kyo said.

"How can we be expected to just...give up ourselves?"

"You don't. You have to learn that the only convincing shield for a lie is the truth. So, let's look at an example. Earlier today, the council of Konoha became aware of the existence of a shadow agent named Itou Kazuki. This person does not exist, because this person was me. They believed a lie because I gave them the truth with it. But I think Yuudai can explain better then I. He has some skill at hiding his real self." Naruto flinched.

_**"Kit, you've known this guy for what...an hour and ten minutes know, and he saw right through it..." **_Naruto had not been completely honest about the Kyuubi. They were practically best friends at this point, since Kyuubi had utterly given up at escaping, he figured he might as well enjoy himself a little. Rather then make the rest of his life hell by pissing off his jailor, he would rather have his prison be comfortable.

'I know, I know. It's freaking creepy. How the hell did he catch the act?'

_**"I imagine it would have something to do with the fact that it's his job not only to keep up a perfect act, but to spot another one."**_

__Good point.' Naruto thought. He was in Henge anyway, he might as well explain what he did. "You make yourself a small part of the act...it's wearing a mask. No one can see your face, but the eyes are still yours." Kyo nodded.

"Well put. So, for the future, whenever we meet, you will be a different person. Your codename stays the same, but your attitude, your disguise, it will always change. Now then, let's begin this lesson. It's acting 101 pretty much."

_**3 hours later**_

Naruto was dead tired. Kyo was very unforgiving, and could see right through any facade they put up. The lesson was nearly over, though. They had spent hours learning about how everything came into play. Facial expressions, tone of voice, all of it. In the end, the only way to pull off the act was to partially believe in it yourself. Kyo had explained it has believing that you had become the person you were acting as. If you believed otherwise, small signs would give it away, and experienced shinobi caught it.

"Alright, it's late, and you three will be better served by sleep, more so then you know. Yuudai, stay behind. Emi, Nobu, head home, and Nobu, don't you dare shirk off opening that package and reading the instructions, and you damn well better follow them. Each of you, tell no-one of this. Not even ANBU knows who we are. It stays that way." Kyo said. They both nodded, and used Shunshin no jutsu. Naruto crossed his arms.

"Well?"

"Those two know why I picked them, or at least, they can guess. You have only a vague idea. That mask you wear is proof that you can do this job better then they ever could. You do it naturally. Naruto, you already live a lie, almost like I do. That gives you more power then you could ever know. Those few who caught it can't see through it, at least not completely. I can. Naruto, I know you are smarter then you let on. Much smarter. Your problem is one that I have faced many times...you lose yourself to the mask. The other two will have great difficulty letting go of themselves, the hardest part. You can do it easily, like I can. Our problem is knowing which is the mask, and which is the real us. Never forget that. That's all I wanted to say." Naruto nodded, and left.

* * *

Shikamaru was working everything over. He knew what Kyo wanted him for. Shika was smart, and that counted for a lot. A key part of the job was knowing what to do with information, and how to get it. That was something he excelled at. "Troublesome teacher..." he sighed, looking at the package. He opened it up. There was a CD player and a set of headphones, along with a note.

_This device will subliminally train you, give you knowledge and habits. Just wear the headphones, once you're asleep, it will play at the right moments during your sleep cycle. You won't know the majority of it upon waking up, but the knowledge will be there. I can bring it out. Burn this note, and don't let anyone get hold of that CD._

He shrugged. The whole idea was troublesome, but he wasn't going to disobey an order. Besides, this seemed like something that would actually occupy his mind. As he thought, he found it appealed to him, the idea of a constant game of cat and mouse wherein brains meant far more then brawn. Still, he wondered why "Yuudai" already knew the basics of hiding under an act. He was by far the best at it. Shikamaru was just to lazy to really try at it, and he simply could not let go of the idea that he was pretending. On to the larger mystery, he was wondering if Kyo believed what he said, why would he trust them? Did he trust the Hokage?

Shikamaru had the distinct feeling that Kyo was the type who could outwit the devil. He decided that the safest way to treat him was as one big act. He was sure of one thing. Someone like that, even the face he gave to Tsunade was a fake. Shikamaru didn't trust him, but then, nobody could.

* * *

Post Notes:

I don't really know if I want to go into complete detail about all the training. You guys get the idea. I think the next chapter is going to jump right to the good stuff, rather then make you all wait. I'll admit, I didn't focus on Naruto enough here, but I am still laying bricks. In the next chapter, the story will kick in. First missions, anyone?


End file.
